Saturday, August 28, 2010

Welcome Sound of New England to Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center in Litchfield.

We had an 8 AM call for breakfast, and with the current salmonella egg crisis, I wasn't sure if they would serve eggs. But they did, and I hope they were all from local farmers.











I had a small dish of in-house-made yogurt with a tablespoon or so of granola, probably also made in-house. It was good.

And I had probably two scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon and a cup of decaf.

I took the box of "Dipha-Bits" down to breakfast, hoping to present them to Joe, but he wasn't at breakfast. Not knowing exactly what to do with them, I left them on the buffet table. Some people knew I had made it, but I didn't make any kind of announcement.

After breakfast, I took a ride through some back roads. The morning was bright and sunny, the road empty, and the ride exhilerating. I returned just in time for our first rehearsal, and when I got in, I noticed the Dipha-Bits were gone. I asked someone what happened to them, and they said Joe had them!

When I got into the rehearsal space, Marion acknowledged the Dipha-Bits and everyone clapped. Joe had the box and didn't realize there was really something inside. So I showed him and he took out a few diphthongs and cracked up. Then he read the box cover to the group. All weekend, if we had diphthong issues, he held up the box. It was a great success.

Lunch was amazing. One of their chef's inventions called Asian salmon cake. I got the recipe. It's shredded salmon, nori, onion and garlic and ginger to taste, tamari sauce and a little orange juice. Then brushed with egg and dredged in panko crumbs and frozen until stiff enough to cut into wedges. Sauteed and served with rice (which I didn't have).

Instead I had a big plate of salad and house-made balsamic vinaigrette.

A cup of tea with soy milk and a little honey should have been enough, but they served strawberry shortcake with home-made biscuits and whipped cream. That was too much to resist.

We had at least an hour to kill, so I took Martin Luther out to the Mary Garden and read for a while. The sun was really hot, but all in all, it was very pleasant. The garden is plain but very restful. There were benches all around.
After another three-hour rehearsal, we had some time before dinner, so Carol came over from Torrington with her Scrabble game. Dinner was early -- 5:30 PM -- so we didn't finish the game. It was an awful game and we ditched it.

Dinner was some kind of chicken breast and spinach on noodles. I skipped the noodles and added a big plate of salad. The chicken was good.

I also had a cup of decaf.

When the dessert was brought out, I wanted to scream. If I was only going to have one dessert, this should have been it, not the strawberry shortcake. It was apple strudel with huge pieces of apple and not a lot of crust. And whipped cream. But I resisted and instead had a little dish of olives and a second cup of decaf, this one with a little milk in it.

We had at least an hour after dinner until "Retreat Fun," so I went to my garret and read more Martin Luther and talked on the phone to Morrow. He had gotten home in the afternoon in time to pick up Chai at the kennel. He was going to call for pizza.

I took a glass of wine down to the auditorium.

I stayed for about an hour but was tired and really preferred to read and maybe fall asleep early.

I did read a bit and did fall asleep early.

Poor Martin Luther was a tortured soul if there ever was one!!

A demain!